This article describes a feature available to all customers on Dropbox.
This article explains how to run an advanced reinstall of the Dropbox desktop app on your Windows, Mac, or Linux device. This is an extra step beyond a basic reinstall you can take, such as if you’d like to remove saved settings from a previous install of the Dropbox desktop application, or in some cases when recommended by our support team to troubleshoot an issue.
If you’d like to remove the Dropbox desktop app from your computer, learn how to safely uninstall Dropbox.
After completing the reinstall, it may take some time for your files to sync. Changes made to files in your Dropbox account while it was offline—on dropbox.com or other connected devices—can result in conflicted copies.
This process only works when linking to the exact same account that was previously linked to this computer. If desired, you can merge accounts instead.
Note: If you need to reinstall the Dropbox mobile app, learn how to delete and reinstall Dropbox on on your iPhone or iPad or on your Windows Phone. You can also learn how to resolve issues with your Dropbox Android installation.
Not using Dropbox yet? See how Dropbox helps you effortlessly manage tasks.
Important:
sudo chown "$USER" "$HOME" sudo chown -R "$USER" ~/Dropbox sudo chmod -R u+rw ~/Dropbox sudo mv ~/.dropbox ~/.Trash/dropbox.old sudo chmod -N ~ sudo mv /Library/DropboxHelperTools ~/DropboxHelperTools.old
Important: If you're part of a team account, your Dropbox team name is included in the folder path. You’ll need to enter “~/[Team Name] Dropbox" instead of “~/Dropbox” in the lines above.
5. Get the latest version of the Dropbox desktop app. Download now.
6. Navigate to the folder where you downloaded the installation file and double-click it.
7. Apply any selective sync preferences you had before the reinstall.
8. Select the Dropbox folder location, if not in the default location.
Important: This process removes the previous Dropbox preferences and configuration. If you wish to avoid re-syncing your Dropbox content, you'll need to choose the location for Dropbox to sync to manually. If you don't, you'll create a new Dropbox folder and start to sync your content again.
Depending on your operating system distribution and the package you used during installation, you could have Dropbox files in two different locations. The instructions in this article are for both cases, so some of the commands may result in an error.
Important: In the commands below, it's assumed that your Dropbox folder is in the default pathway. If you placed your Dropbox folder in a custom location, replace all instances of ~/Dropbox for the full location of your Dropbox folder in quotation marks. For example, if you have your Dropbox folder in the path "/Volumes/DifferentPlace/Dropbox", replace ~/Dropbox from the following command lines to "/Volumes/DifferentPlace/Dropbox".
`dropbox stop` `dropbox status # Should report "not running"` `rm -rf ~/.dropbox-dist` `rm -rf /var/lib/dropbox` `rm -rf ~/.dropbox*` `sudo apt-get remove nautilus-dropbox` `sudo apt-get remove dropbox` `rm /etc/apt/source.d/dropbox` `sudo chown "$USER" "$HOME"` `sudo chown -R "$USER" ~/Dropbox` `sudo chattr -R -i ~/Dropbox` `sudo chmod -R u+rw ~/Dropbox`
Note: Deleting any of these folders won’t delete the files in your Dropbox folder.
3. Restart your computer.
Important: This process removes the previous preferences and configuration. If you wish to avoid re-syncing your Dropbox content, you will need to manually choose the location for Dropbox to sync to. If you don't, you'll create a new Dropbox folder and start to sync your content again.
For an installation on a supported headless Linux distribution:
cd ~ && wget -O - "https://www.dropbox.com/download?plat=lnx.x86" | tar xzf -
cd ~ && wget -O - "https://www.dropbox.com/download?plat=lnx.x86_64" | tar xzf -
~/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd
3. When Dropbox finishes installing, log in and apply any preferences from before the reinstall to the list of excluded items.
Learn more about installation and CLI information.
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Admins
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The Dropbox desktop is available on supported Linux operating machines. Find out more about Dropbox Linux commands and how to configure Dropbox for Linux.
